Fighting for our right to our education

By: Justin Lotspeich

Posted: 2/24/10

Our education system is under attack. The politicians assigned to protect it are bombarding it. 2009 saw drastic California State budget cuts, and many of these cuts directly affect California's education system. College courses are being discontinued, students are being turned away, tuition is rising, teachers are losing their jobs, and financial aid is being threatened. How long are Californians going to allow the destruction of their education system? How much will we be willing to sacrifice before we take a stand?

Since 1907, Californians have fought to supply quality education for all residents in K-12 schools, community colleges, and UC and State Universities. Californians have dedicated over a century of struggling to build the education systems we benefit from, and our current government is destroying 103 years of work overnight. Sacramento cries for budget cuts, and the knife is pressed against Education's throat. We cannot allow this to continue. Public education and college financial aid are the rights of every human being, and to attack those rights is to attack our person and the future of our progeny. Budget restructuring is certainly needed, but doing so at the expense of the education system is counterproductive. We sit in classes every day with future leaders of America and of the world; we are taught by learned instructors who desire to shape a better human race, and we are supported by administrators and taxpayers. How can we remain silent when our government does not aggressively defend our education and future?

Some of us have attended NDNU since freshmen year, while others have arrived here by way of community college, UC or State University, private institution, or foreign institution. Some of us have been in California's public education system since kindergarten. No matter how we arrived at NDNU, or whether we have benefited directly from California's public education system, many of us are affected by the budget cuts-especially in the area of financial aid. In 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger proposed drastic Cal Grant funding cuts: "The governor's proposal would eliminate the 77,000 new grants awarded each year at a cost of $180 million, but that savings would eventually grow to more than $900 million as students graduated and the program was phased out" (LA Times). Although students may qualify for Cal Grants, the money is not dispersed to universities until the governor approves the state budget that allows for Cal Grant funding. When our governor advocates slashing funding for the program, what are the chances of having the needed funding in future budgets? Knowing that our financial aid and the education of all Californians are being threatened must spur us to united action. To silently accept the education budget cuts is to throw fuel on the bonfire that burns our books, our careers, and our future. To let apathy rein when the tyrant is breaking down our door will only leave a ravished public education system that will take decades to repair. We must continue the 103 years of California tradition by fighting for our education and for the education of those who follow our path.

United States citizens have designated March 4th as a national day of protest. At 5 o'clock pm, at the San Francisco Civic Center, join your fellow citizens in beating back the budget cuts, and fight to restore our California education system to the quality we all deserve. Discuss the budget cuts with those around you. Create picket signs that display the benefit of education. Organize carpools to a BART station for transportation to the Civic Center, and encourage people to rally in defense of our education system.